Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director for Monetary Authority of Singapore gives his Keynote Speech at Financial Times Investing for Good Asia Digital Conference on 8 September 2021
“The Earth has a deadline. Let’s make it a lifeline”. These are the words on the Climate Clock in New York’s Union Square. Instead of measuring the time of day, this clock measures the time remaining to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the catastrophic effects of climate change. We have less than ten years to cut emissions by nearly half and less than thirty years to reach net zero, in order to keep global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Climate change is already happening; it is rapid, widepsread, and intensifying. The recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is sobering. Global warming has already reached 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warmest in 125,000 years. With each year’s delay in reducing global emissions, the task will get more difficult and costly.
Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN commented on the risk of greenwashing in the rising of sovereign issuers of green bonds.
Prof Sumit Agarwal, Managing Director of SGFIN shared the view on single-use plastic bags that have been labelled as one of the biggest polluters, and Singapore is one of the world’s biggest offenders.
Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN described a unique Private-Public-People collaborative model for CSR to accumulate social capital at firm-level, industry-level, and societal level in the midst of pandemic in Singapore.
Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN discussed the definition of green finance, types of green related financial products for investment, green investors, and the role to be played by Singapore in the development of green finance going forward.
Together with his NUS colleagues, Prof Sumit Agarwal, Managing Director of SGFIN studied the financial impact of haze on Singapore, based on the risk avoidance behaviours by local residents and foreign travellers. To find an effective and lasting regional solution to the haze issue, he saw monetary incentive as the most powerful means to galvanize actions in changing behaviours. Studies; like the NUS study; which quantified the real economic cost of haze serve as a useful aid for governments and policymakers to justify using public funding for preventive and protective measures against the haze.
In the financial quotient series, Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN described the definition and three key aspects of sustainability reporting in Singapore context.
In the financial quotient series, Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN and Ruth Tan discussed in detail what was social return on investment (SROI) and how it could be useful to evaluate the non-monetary impact generated by social/environment projects and activities.
Through this research study on the productivity level of a group of taxi drivers when air quality worsened, Prof Sumit Agarwal, Managing Director of SGFIN cautioned on the wider detrimental effects of lower productivity not only on the personal health, but also the economy at large.
Assoc Prof Zhang Weina, Deputy Director of SGFIN commented on the principles, benefits and practices of companies that were active in doing good.